InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by WayneK on 2019/01/02 21:02

This is what I'd like to be able to do with images in the grid:

1) Display thumbnails big enough to see what the image contains

2) Link to the full-size image in another program for full viewing.

So far I've been using screen capture / paste. I've had the following problems:

1) Images must go in the item column, which means descriptors have to go in another column. I can make that work though I'd prefer the flexibility of putting images into any text column so the name and description can go in the item column.

2) When pasted, images appear in different sizes and can't be re-sized inside InfoQube.

3) The images are usually cut off at the bottom and side. The view can be expanded by dragging row and column borders, but when I return later I often find the image cut off again.

So I'd like to be able to create stable, big-enough, uniformly-sized thumbnails in the grid so I can catalogue and link to full-sized images. I don't want to use the doc pane because I want to see many photos with their descriptions in a single, densely-packed view so I can easily scan for what I need.

Has anyone else been able to make images work in the grid in a way similar to what I'm looking for? Any tips would be appreciated.

Wayne

Comments

Made some progress, I think, so I thought I'd share it on the off-chance someone else tries to do this.

1) Solved the variable thumbnail size this way:

a) Screen capture the diagram, table, or illustration.

b) Paste it into a PDF or other program that can re-size the image.

c) Re-size the image, do a second screen capture, then paste into InfoQube.

d) Experiment with image size until you get one that pastes into InfoQube at the size you want.

e) For future images, use the first image as a visual guide for re-sizing new images.

2) To prevent the image from getting cut off at the bottom, add 3-4 blank lines in the item column. (But having done that, I find that there are advantages to leaving the image cut off: you can still get a good idea what it is, and the rows are much more compact).

3) Each item will have a link to the full-size image that will open in my PDF program. Each image is a separate file.The thumbnails are too small to read anything. They're just a reminder of what the image looks like and helps you do a visual search (there have been times I can remember what an illustration looks like but can't remember where I saw it).

4) The further great advantage is being able to add categories and tags so you can filter and find what you need. I haven't done any categorizing yet but here's what the thumbnail view currently looks like. A couple of the thumbnails are in "full display" and the rest are collapsed to one line where you can just see the top 25%:

I'm still a little nervous that this set-up isn't going to be stable when I've added hundreds of images.

Wayne

Hi Wayne, I understand your desire not to put your image thumbnails in the doc pane, because you wouldn't be able to visually scan a column of thumbnails, each linked to your external PDF file.

Today I've been creating sort of a visual tutorial in the doc pane and it proved to be a great tool. I was able to capture small rectangular region screenshots with my ShareX tool, annotate them with rectangles, arrows, etc in the ShareX imaging editing window, and then immediately insert the annotated image into the doc pane. In the doc pane, it was very easy to resize the images to any desired size.

Given that the doc pane is such a good tool for creating a document with images, it makes me think that the ideal solution would be if it were possible to display the content of the HTML pane in the grid cell, below any of the actual content of the cell. In your case, the HTML pane could contain only the thumbnail, and it could perhaps be displayed in the grid cell using some sort of tag in the cell, on a per-item basis. Then you could have your visually-scannable column of image thumbnails. The grid cell could also contain a hyperlink to your external PDF file or any other desired content. Maybe Pierre could eventually implement something like this.

You could also save the content in the doc pane to a PDF file and then paste a link in any desired field or the doc pane in IQ. I don't see a Save As PDF option yet but you could (one way to do it) use Menu > File.> Open in Browser > Print > Save as PDF. (Chrome should put the pathname of the saved PDF on the clipboard but it doesn't.) Or Menu > File > Page Setup to select your PDF printer, then Menu > File > Print Preview> Print Document. Then find and paste the PDF pathname in IQ.

I understand your desire not to put your image thumbnails in the doc pane, because you wouldn't be able to visually scan a column of thumbnails, each linked to your external PDF file.

My other issue with the Doc pane for images is that it's only useful if it's expanded to take up a considerable part of the screen. All my screen space is taken up by my grid displays. Expanding and collapsing the Doc pane for each viewed image wouldn't be practical.

Thanks for spending time on this. I've been "off" this topic for a bit so it'll take me some time to digest what you're suggesting.

Wayne